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Once you have the chance to experience Fresh & Reckless live, you turn into immediate fans. Hailing out of New Orleans, the dynamic duo is composed of Mel and Deelo, both who carry out-of-this-world personalities and incredible social media presence — boasting well over 5 million followers combined.

With Mel growing up heavy in the church and singing in the choir, and Deelo playing drums in both marching and jazz bands, both carry an affinity for music that does not go unnoticed. Beyond that, it’s their choreography and dance moves that separates them from the rest of the artists in the industry… especially when it comes to group acts.

Most recently, Fresh & Reckless celebrated a true viral moment with their hit song “Blicky.” The song has catapulted to new heights, reaching #1 on TikTok with over 3.5 million views made. Beyond the 60 million streams the song has accumulated, they also turned the song’s official music video into a full-blown function. Simultaneously, they pay homage to the city of New Orleans that birthed them.

Mel states, “Shout out to Hot Boys. BG just came home man. I really looked up to the Hot Boys. Really, New Orleans got so much culture. You can really learn a lot from the city. Even if you’re not even from the city, you can learn a lot from the city.”

Sheen spoke with Fresh & Reckless virtually to discuss their sound, the “Blicky” video shoot, fashion inspo, studio essentials, goals, and more!

 

For those who don’t know, who is Fresh & Reckless?

Deelo: We fresh and we reckless. We always fresh. We from New Orleans, so we come up living reckless. There’s a lot with that, Fresh & Reckless.

Where y’all located?

Deelo: New Orleans and Miami. I’m in Houston right now, but we got a spot in Miami and New Orleans. Our family’s in New Orleans, but we got a spot in Miami.

 

How would you guys describe your sound?

Deelo: Trap pop. That’s what that’s what it is, trap pop. If anybody asks, that’s what it is. Don’t try to go back and forth with us. Don’t ask: “so which one is it? Is it more R&B? Is it more pop?” Trap pop. 

Mel: But don’t get fooled now, because we could make some R&B. We got a R&B single coming called “I Told You.” 

Deelo: “I told you.” [sings] We got that R&B, that love lane too. It’s coming. 

Best memory from the “Blicky” video shoot? Because y’all had the city out.

Mel: Sure did have the city out forreal. It was really when we had did it with the police, because we had stopped the whole parade and the police literally did it with us. All the police that’s around us, everybody stopped doing their job and did the dance. That was my favorite part.

Deelo: My favorite part is when we was walking through the streets, because we was in the parade. Soon as we got to all the people where everybody was at, because the parade started with all the bands. We took pictures with the band, the dance team. Everybody came over, we took pictures. 

When you start the parade and start going through everybody, the more we kept going, the more it got crazier. People grabbing. People running up, pulling on us. We love all the fans and supporters so we’re going to try to take pictures with everybody. Our manager started saying “come on! Come on!” He wasn’t stopping us from taking pictures from people, but we had to catch up, so some people didn’t get to get pictures with us. But that was my favorite part in the parade, just seeing how the energy comes from. Because we inside for a while. We didn’t pop out for a while. We did that, lawd. Them people went crazy. That was my favorite part, walking through the city of New Orleans. The streets of the parade.

 

How did you guys build your followings? Did you guys go viral?

Deelo: With us, we both built out followers off our viral videos. Showing our personality. Us being from New Orleans, how we talk. That’s how we built ours.

Mel, you got a million followers on Instagram?

Mel: Yeah, something like that. What happened was: during COVID, I was at 500K. I used to go Live. I don’t want to make it look like it’s giving credit because I still did my due time, but during COVID I went Live. It was a Spanish lady, a deaf lady, and this other dude named Rudy. He was a supermodel, he had 23 million. Every night they went Live, it was at least 500K to 700K people in there. So I’m in there doing my due diligence: man what’s happening? Blah blah blah. COVID turned me up all the way, and TikTok.

Deelo: Yeah definitely, TikTok too. My TikTok went crazy also from me doing my videos, doing my thing. It’s about to hit a million now, this my fourth page. I had like a million on another page too, this my fourth page on TikTok. and I’m about to hit a million again. That’s a blessing fasho. That definitely ain’t happen overnight, because they gotta see you. 

Mel: Oh no, def not.

Deelo: To make people follow you, they gotta see you a few times. They’re not gonna follow you off of one viral video. You gotta do it a few times for people to start engaging. When they start engaging, not buku people engage the first time. I’m saying buku, that’s how we talk in New Orleans. Buku means a lot. [laughs] They gotta see you buku times for people to engage with you. We have a half million on Instagram, Mel got about 3 million. I got a little over a quarter million.

Mel: Don’t forget Deelo, we gained some followers when it was a 4 man group

Deelo: Oh yeah, shout out to that too. With the other 4 members, on Twitter. We went viral on Twitter. We gained some followers off that.

 

What was that video?

Mel: We were doing a concert in the street, basically. [laughs] Not too much, just a concert. Performing our famous Catch phrases.

Deelo: When we perform, we have sound effects. We have dance breakdowns. We start the music scene, talk to the crowd. We did that in front of the camera in the middle of the street, so that went viral. We performed like was on stage, but we did it in the middle of the street, with all the sound effects and everything. That went viral. Them videos started going viral for us on Twitter, then a lot of people followed our Instagram from that too. Tiktok from that.

What inspires your fashion?

Deelo: We’re some real life, stylish rockstars. You might see something like, I’ma grab this and throw it on, mix it with something. But with our fashion, that really comes from our own thinking and branding. We look at Michael Jackson, how he dressed here and there. But our fashion really comes from us. We’ll wear some big pants one day, like huge pants. We’ll wear some flair. We’ll wear some skinny jeans. We’ll wear some shorts. We’ll wear some big shorts. We’ll wear some short shorts. It’s whatever we feeling.

Mel: Hoochie daddy! [laughs]

 

How much are y’all spending on jewelry?

Mel: [laughs]

Deelo: A lot. A lot of times with the jewelry, jewelers and different jewelry companies will send us stuff here and there. Recently, me and Mel recently just bought a watch. Me and Mel about to get another watch. I got a piece made, it’s called So Retawdid.

I went viral saying this rhyme on 

Twitter when we was  four man group. I said “D-double E-L-O is what they call me. Spent about $50K on my wrists, aw yeah.” That So Retwadid chain went viral. I got a chain made that says So Retawdid, with the pinky holding the chain. I just got that done. I brought a tennis chain.

These are different prices, but we don’t spend too much money on jewelry like that. We not throwing our money on jewelry.

Mel: Probably the most we ever spent was $50K, because we got this multi jewelry pendant thing. It shows videos, pictures and all Multimedia in a diomaond encrusted gold pendant. The most.

Deelo: We get them done, but we got our own jewelry company. Our label  First Family Inc produces them. we got our own jewelry  creations  for sure. We got the Multi Pendant, with the digital display  in the middle. Y’all gonna want one of them for sure.

 

3 you need in the studio at all times?

Deelo: Tea. Some good hot tea with mint and lemon. Some snacks, and definitely need my phone.

Mel: I’ma need that coconut water, that Snickers, that bag of chips. The red kind.

 

Any goals for yourself?

Mel: Definitely. 

Deelo: My main goal is definitely for us to be the #1 new group that’s out. Winning Best Performance Awards, along with Chris Brown and Beyonce. All that. Definitely be the best performers from New Orleans, because we’re the first one coming out of our city that do what we’re doing. It took a while for our city to adjust to it, but we had to stay to the core. We had to stick to our roots and go crazy with what we doing. 

Because it’s really different. We’re from New Orleans, we talk from New Orleans, but we here dancing and doing choreo together. In New Orleans, it’s a certain way you dance. It’s a certain way you do it. We just was going crazy with our stuff. Definitely be the #1 group fasho. Every song we drop gotta be at least Top 20 on Billboard.

Mel: At least Top 5! [whistles]

Deelo: Top 5 too.

Mel: Top two but we ain’t two. [laughs]

Deelo: They can’t stop how we coming. Because how can you stop somebody that can do a Hip Hop song, then come and drop a pop song. Go on stage, flip off the stage. Lock in together, fall on each other. Get back up, stop the music. Sing in a note. One person goes low, one person goes high. How you gon’ stop all that?

Mel: Boys coming with that motion. That pressure!

 

Photo Credits: Courtesy of Jacob York